My friend Katy blogged a few days ago about her quirks — inexplicable things ones does and habits one has. And I thought rather than post a long comment for her I’d write what follows.

Quirks? Yes, I’ve got my fair share of them; maybe more than my fair share. Who hasn’t?

My friends are too polite to tell me about them — and they still remain friends — so I can only assume they’re not too annoying for most people. Or maybe that’s why I don’t have a huge circle of friends.

So what are my quirks? Hmmm … you really want to know? OK …

I repeat words in the middle of sentences. For instance I’ll say something like; “I wonder if maybe I — maybe I could borrow your saucepan?”. I don’t know how often I do it, but I catch myself at it every so often and think “WTF did I do that?”. It’s a sort of hesitation, although not quite. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m going to say because invariably I do, so that isn’t the cause, unlike most hesitations. It’s something much more automatic than that, like a little loop in the brain circuits snaps open.

I interrupt people; and talk over them. This is very annoying for them, and almost as annoying for me. I catch myself doing this and every time I kick myself in the ankle and say something like “f***ing dickhead — STOP doing that!” in my own ear. It isn’t just something I do on the phone, where there are no visual cues about speaking; I do it in face-to-face conversations as well. Again I don’t know why I do it. I’ve been moaned at for it over many years by parents, work colleagues, managers, friends and myself, but I still do it. It seems to be something I cannot break. We all have a collision detection system which kicks in when we start speaking at the same time as someone else. Usually it stops both people, who then either start again after a random delay or undergo some negotiation; sometimes only one person will stop leaving the way clear for the other. Clearly my collision detection system doesn’t work properly. Why?

I also swear a lot. I know I do. Hopefully it (usually automatically) moderates itself in polite company.

Like many people I have the thing about peeing. I have to pee just before I go out and last thing when settling for the night. Yep, even if I’ve been only 10 minutes before. I also have it when doing anything in the garden: within 10-15 minutes of starting anything in the garden I have to go to the loo.

Does nudity count as a quirk? Yes, I thought it would. As regular readers will know I’m comfortable being nude. I always have been; it’s how I was brought up. We have a naturally warm house (no the heating isn’t turned up high, if anything the opposite) and I don’t feel the cold easily (too much blubber!). Consequently at home I seldom get dressed unless I’m going out, someone is coming round or the weather is really, really cold. I always have a dressing gown or jeans & t-shirt to hand in case the doorbell rings. I even sit in the garden, near the house where essentially no-one can see, in the nude, although I don’t normally wander down the garden in full view of the neighbours. Mustn’t frighten the horses y’know.

I almost invariably have to sleep flat on my front, facing left. Don’t know why; I always have, even as a kid. I have to be really tired (or ill) to sleep on my back or side — although I do sometimes wake up on my back. Bloody annoying now I have a CPAP mask (because of the sleep apnoea); it would be much better and easier if I could get to sleep easily on my back. But then I suspect everyone has one position in which they normally sleep.

Another annoying thing I do is sniff. It is about the only way of clearing my nose. As a kid I was always being told to blow my nose not sniff. But blowing my nose was a waste of time; I never could clear it that way; it just didn’t work, whereas sniffing did. And that’s still the case. I assume it must be something to do with the structure of my nasal passages ans sinuses; and despite surgery. The catarrh in my sinuses annoys me, so I’m damn sure the sniffing annoys others. Sorry!

So there are a few quirks. I’m sure I must have lots of ohers that I’ve not noticed.

Dare you tell us about your quirks?